There are times when the off-grid life seems idyllic. There are other
times when it's a royal pain in the ass. One day, you're walking
through a winter wonderland, marvelling at the pristine landscape and
the sheer beauty of the snow-covered wilderness. The next day, you're
at the threshold of Hell.
Winter Wonderland. (I don't have any pictures of Hell.)
Remember
when Paul rented a backhoe and buried our water line so that it
wouldn't freeze during the winter? Then painstakingly insulated the
parts that couldn't be buried, again so that it wouldn't freeze during
the winter? Well, winter came, and we were doing great, we had a runoff
pipe that we kept constantly flowing. Whenever the mercury dropped
below zero, we simply opened up a valve. As long as water is flowing,
it won't freeze, right? Everything was working perfectly until one day
the temperature plummeted to -8. Even though the valve was fully open,
the water flow got slower and slower, until there was no water at all.
The pipe was frozen solid.
A trip up to the water intake revealed
that animals had discovered our pipe insulation, and decided it made
great nesting material. They had stripped the pipe bare, exposing it to
the sub-zero temperatures. Paul tried heating the line, and took it
apart in various spots to try and get the flow back, but it was futile -
until the weather warmed up enough to melt the stubborn ice, we would
be without water. Even then, we knew that as soon as the temperature
fell again, it would freeze again. We needed a backup plan.
Frozen water pipe up at the source.
Ironically,
the stream that flows down the mountain was providing plenty of water,
and it all ended up in our pond. We had brought with us from Ontario a
number of large plastic barrels, and luckily, they just happened to fit
through the door to the basement ...
A couple of trips to the
hardware store furnished us with a heavy duty pump, as well as two 12
volt mini pumps. The plan that was hatched in my (genius) husband's
mind began to take shape. One barrel, fitted with a shut-off valve,
went into the back of the truck. Three empty barrels stood ready in the
basement, one of which was hooked up to the heavy duty pump which fed
into our household water pipes. Paul drove the truck to the pond. A
length of hose with a filter on the end went into the water that feeds
our pond (at which point Paul had thrown a few shovelfuls of clean
gravel to act as a natural filter) ... thence through one of the mini
pumps ... into the barrel in the back of the truck. Once we had a full
barrel, Paul reversed up the drive to the basement window, stuck another
length of hose through the window into an empty barrel, the other end
attached to the full barrel, turned on the pump and down the water went
into the barrel in the basement. We used the second mini pump to
transfer between barrels. It's important to note that we add a small
measure of bleach to each barrel-full of water - this is essential to
kill any bacteria that would grow in storage.
*pause for breath*
As
you can imagine, this arrangement, although brilliant, was just not
workable for the long weeks and months of winter that stretched ahead.
It's only when you are suddenly deprived of unlimited free water, that
you realize just how much of it you use in a day! We needed a better,
and more permanent, solution. We had been toying with the notion of
getting a well drilled for a while, but needs must, and after some
research and phone calls we discovered that this was in fact the perfect
time of year to get it done. So we called George Rudderham and they
came and drilled us a well.
The drilling of a well is an all-day
job, and quite something to watch. We were kind of hoping they'd strike
oil ... or gold ... or (Paul's idea) rum. But it didn't take them long
to strike what we'd been waiting to find: water. The well ended up
being 62 feet deep, but the water sits only six feet down. It's a
financial investment that we really didn't want to have to make just
yet, but it ensures that we will have a year-round source of water, no
matter how low the temperature falls.
Now
that we have a well, we no longer have to fetch water from the pond,
but we still had to devise a way to get water from the well into our
storage barrels. Eventually we will dig a trench, lay in a water line
from the well to the house, and our heavy-duty pump will deliver the
water directly to our household systems. But until this is done, we're
still using the barrels. Regular garden hose is no good at low
temperatures as the hose freezes and becomes hard and unmanageable. We
ordered 100 feet of rubber hose from the hardware store ... and they
gave us vinyl. Apart from being half the price, it actually turned out
to be better because for one thing, it's transparent, so if there are
any freeze-ups, you can see where it is. You can also watch the water
coming through the hose. So currently, we are using clear vinyl hose,
drawn directly from the well, into the basement window and pumped into
our storage barrels. We're conserving water as much as possible, but we
have a 200 gallon storage capacity over 4 barrels (remember the one
from the back of the truck?) and it's really surprising how much water
you can re-use and conserve when you put your mind to it.
Our water storage barrels and pumps.
Our brand new well head.
When
the temperatures are steadily above freezing, we'll be able to return
to our mountain stream water system. But until then, thanks to our new
well, at least we know that we'll never be without water again.
Stay tuned for
The Threshold of Hell, Part 2 ...
